TTC Super Ovulation part 2

[suemays]

hey ladies,

There are a few of us who are ttc after mc's, however there will be ladies out there who are also ttc for the first time or second or third without success. If anyone is on, considering or had success on a super ovulation programme then do join us. How long did it take ? Did you try IUI with it.. ? Did you have PCOS?

Kicking this off and hoping some of you will join....

part 1 here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/conception/1385998-TTC-Super-Ovulation

Hi ladies -

care TDL is The Doctor's Laboratory, where Mr S gets most of his testing.

kittens interesting about the AF delay, does that mean you had a 15-day luteal phase? Do you think anything you're taking has lengthened your LP? Interesting you mentioning the FISH test; when I saw Mr S week before last he mentioned that test, but said he was still checking it out as it's a very new test and he wanted to see more data on it before he decided whether to use it or not. Seems he must have decided it's worth doing now, if he's sending your OH for the test? Pity I didn't know before OH went for his sperm tests yesterday otherwise we could have asked for a form for that too!

euro I meant to comment before; I had an abnormal smear test a few years back, they called me back for a repeat scan a couple of weeks later and that turned out to be clear. I was told at the time that sometimes they see abnormalities showing up on one test that are not present at a repeat one, they consider these red herrings. I had to have a test every year for 5 years after that, but never had another abnormal scan. I hope yours is something similar.

duggs Welcome back, I wondered how you were doing. Are you going to get retested now you've both finished your anti-bs? And your DH, is he going to get his DNA fragmentation checked again, if I remember right it was thought perhaps the bacterial infection may have caused his high fragmentation count, is that right? Btw I didn't post a link on the 'just mommies' site (don't actually know that one?) .. ? How are you doing now, are you still TTC as well as waiting for the adoption process to start?

jaffa Welcome back, and hope this round of SO gives a better outcome for you this time!

On the subject of Serum tests and prescriptions - I was very surprised, they've just sent me through a prescription for the anti-bs without asking for additional payment, so I'm very pleased! All I need to do know is find a pharmacy that will accept international prescriptions - oh, and tell DH about it ... !

I'm a bit concerned that you have to stop TTC (obviously) the cycle it takes for the anti-bs to clear the infections, wondering where that leaves me with taking Letrozole. If Letrozole is cumulative, then shouldn't I take it this next cycle anyway, even though we are not allowed to TTC? I guess so, just seems a bit weird.

Hope you ladies are all doing ok, /waves to everyone.

Ahhh duggs Just read your post on the pred thread, I understand the link now. I think I only posted it on here, not the pred thread, because I don't think anyone on there is looking at the hidden-C/bacteria testing.

Hello all and thanks for asking after me Duggs and *Kittens. I have been in Spain since Monday with no wi-fi but just changed to a hotel for two nights with free wi-fi so trying to catch up! Interesting reading about the results people are having from the tests at Serum. Seems everybody who has tested has befn positive for something. Think I will do them but not just yet with paying for hols.

Jaffa have been wondering how you were getting on, so you are now on pred as well. Hope it is the answer for you. :)

I am back on super ov and take last letrezole tomorrow, seeing Dr Gafar at NLC as Mr S off. Has anyone else seen him before?
I had a wtf cycle this month, had cramping on and off for about five days and was around five it six days late. Typically af started on the plane!

How are you getting in Euro, are you still doing ivf?

Ditto pebbles, 5 days late and cramping on CD25 (which I was supposed to be due) then disappeared for 3 days then came back for a day and vanished again. Very confusing!

Yes, ari, I did indeed have a 15 day luteal phase. The only difference was that I added Vit B12 to my list after reading it lengthened LP but I wasn't expecting it to work on the first cycle, especially not a whole 5 days!

Hi pebbles I've been keeping up with your news a bit via our mutual friend. Nice to hear from you . I've seen mr gafar at nlc but only to confirm the miscarriage again before my erpc. His room is a lot bigger and swisher and his scan machine was a lot clearer. He was very nice and sensitive in the circumstances!

hey guys.. pebbles yes we saw dr Gafar for IUI in Feb.. he was very nice indeed and after my successful (hhaa) IVF attempt at London Womens Clinic he saw me in reception at NLC waiting for my second round of intrallipids. He is a lovely man as far as I know.

Ari going for retesting. We will start TTC again next month as is so hard doing nothing. As for carrying on I think the jury is out on that one. For us because DH sperm fragmentation was so high this can be a very likely cause of mc so we decided to wait out one cycle, but is a personal preference.

Hope all ok. Kittens.. interesting that Dr S thinks you have as good a chance naturally as you do with IVF... even though you haven't got a BFP for ages. What do you do... keep going and going.. ummm... is such a minefield.

HavingKittens, do you mean B12, not B6? I did the B6 thing for a while but it didn't do much; unless the effect is delayed, as my LP is longer nowadays, but I've put that down to medicated cycles.

B6, not B12, I meant, sorry.

Oh, maybe it was B6 that I read about. I bought Vit B Complex anyway, which contains both. Being a vegetarian it's probably a bood idea to take it anyway. I doubt it was that that made the difference as I only just started with it this cycle.

Obviously the Gonal F and Tamoxifen were also things that were different this cycle but my Googling informed me that, if anything, they shorten your cycle rather than lengthen it. Maybe it was just down to stress and being super emotional. I really don't know! A happy medium would be nice next time, a 28 day cycle perhaps. Or no AF at all ideally.

No AF ideally indeed. There seem a lot of vegetarians amongst us; I'm vegan and have been so for over 20 years; did you say you were vegetarian ari? Do you all take flax oil instead of the fish omega-3s? I used to take the algal oil but it's quite expensive, although supposedly more efficient.
I seem to read conflicting reports of fertility in vegetarians; some saying that lower protein intake is associated with reduced ovulation, some saying that higher intake of plant lignans is associated with better ovulation rates. I have a 44-year-old single raw vegan friend who is convinced her fertility is being protected by her lifesyle and that if and when she meets the right man she will be able to conceive easily. Can't say I share her optimism! In fact I feel like a one-woman campaign to urge everyone I know in their twenties to get on with it, if they think they'll ever want kids! Although when my severe endometriosis was diagnosed when I was 23, my gynaecologist said pretty much the same thing to me, but I didn't listen.
I doubt whether your B complex has very large quantities of B6 in it, but I may be wrong. I think I was taking 200mg a day at one point, right on the edge of potential nerve damage!

It's the Mega B-100 one from H&B and has 100mg of B6 in it.

Yes, that is quite a lot. The Bs are meant to work better synergistically, so that's probably a good one to take.

Hi all, Ari that's great news about the prescription. I got GP to prescribe DH the anti-b's ok in the end. Good tip for anyone else doing the serum tests, and then going to the GP for prescription approach: male GP asked significantly less questions!!

I started taking the anti-b's last Thurs night, and to limit the tmi lets just say that a good proportion of everything leaving my lower half since has been Hot, Hot, Hot! Ouch! Duggs did you get any stinging? Could be a side effect, but have convinced myself its the nasties on their way out.

Pebbles I cancelled the IVF after downregging. I had my downregging scan last Monday. I had every side effect in the book by that point, including full on Black Dog depression, and felt absolutely dreadful. When they told me at the scan that everything looked good but I couldn't start the stimms until Saturday (to suit their schedule rather than for any clinical reason) I had a bit of a meltdown in the waiting room as I couldn't face feeling that for another week. I was in proper physical and mental pain and Mr euro was finding it difficult to watch me suffer like that. So we decided to stop. Then they came back to us and said I could start the stimms on Wednesday instead. But by that point we had both felt relief at the decision to stop, so we decided to stick with it.

I am now trying to figure out wtf is going on with my cycle.

We have decided to take the summer off from actively ttc, see Gorgy for the additional immunolgy tests, have our third IUI in the package of three we bought some time in the autumn and then consider mild or natural IVF (with absolutely no downregging) later in the year.

What are you up to now?

care Thanks - did you just take in the prescription that Serum sent you to your GP? Did they not question it at all? I'm faced with trying to somehow squeeze in a GP appt this week before we fly on Friday on the hope that they will write me a prescription, or else paying for it privately - which is going to cost me about £100 :( Problem is if my GP doesn't agree, then it will be another 2.5 weeks before I can get them privately, once we get back. I'm not sure I want the risk - but I don't want to spend £££ on it either! Still haven't told DP about it either, he's been quite grumpy the past few days and didn't feel it was the right time to bring this up since he didn't know I'd sent away for the tests in the first place.

euro So sorry to hear that downregging made you feel so awful. I've heard very good things about the mild/natural IVFs, maybe that would be better for your body?

Having another dilemma here too ... do I not take my Letrozole for this next upcoming cycle, since we will be on 'no unprotected sex' regime due to the infection-clearing anti-bs .. or do I take them anyway, if they are supposed to have an accumulative effect?

Ari Yes I took in the email I had from Serum with the regime on and said 'I'd like a prescription for this' and then had the test results also. The male Gp we saw for DH's asked very few questions, the one last week asked more. They both made noises about 'possible false positives' and 'might not be factor' etc etc, but they both (and the consultant we saw at an ivf clinic last week) said they are standard doses of anti-b's and 'it can't do any harm'. The GP from last week wouldn't prescribe for DH without him present though, don't know if that's standard or not. Have you tried going direct to a pharmacy with the international prescription? I would personally continue with the letrozole purely because its cheap and I've had no ill effects from it and I'd want the cumulative effect if there is one.

Euro with the mild ivf do I assume they don't do downregging? I only ask as lots of places do protocols without the downregging stage which may suit you better?

Yes care, agate from FF advised the best pharmacy to go to that accepts international prescriptions, and they've quoted around £100 for the whole prescription :(

Just booked for OH to have his Sperm FISH test. The price made me almost fall over! £645! Gulp.

Yikes!!! Do you know what that test involves, kittens? What they're looking for?

Well we've found out that because TDL messed up with our blood tests on Friday, and because we cannot get them done at NLC, we're not going to be able to get our blood tests done for another 3 weeks since we're away. I'm really, really cross ... what a waste of time :(

Which blood tests are they Ari? Are they standard or special ones? Worth a ring round of other local clinics to see if they can fit you in?

LAD, karyotyping and DQa care ... and Mr S has only given me forms for TDL unfortunately :(

Ok I'm a bit confused. I just went to have a quick look at that FISH test and found on the Doctor's Lab site this description in the normal Sperm Aneuploidy test:

Measuring sperm aneuploidy

This test uses fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) to label individual chromosomes with specific probes.

So isn't this what we're currently being tested for anyway, since the sample OH just had to do at TDL was for the sperm aneuploidy test as well as DNA fragmentation? But Mr S was saying this FISH test (tested for in Spanish lab) is a new test? confused.com!

Maybe the Spanish lab just has a better method of testing it, perhaps it's that.

No idea ! He advised us against the DNA Fragmentation test and suggested this instead. Not entirely sure what the difference is. Like you say, probably a different method. (a more expensive one!)